SKUKUZA – In celebration of the international environmental day, the kruger National Park (KNP) in Partnership with Total South Africa embarked on a “Keep Kruger Clean” campaign on Thursday.

Aiming at educating and creating awareness about the danger of littering the environment such as the national parks and the areas where people live, the event attracted learners and educators from the park’s neighbouring communities.
Delivering the key note address,the KNP Managing Executive, Mr Danie Pienaar, spoke strongly about the need for communities to participate in keeping the environment free from litter which he added, contributes enormously to global warming.
“The theme of the 2014 World Environmental Day Celebration is “Raise your voice, not the sea level” which means that we must be vocal against activities that contribute towards global warming.

Our seas are rapidly rising because of pollution and carbon emission. Our area is a bit far from the sea and as result we may not experience the effect of global warming in our life time, however littering of environment is also a serious factor” said Pienaar.

Various schools from the neighbouring communities to the park were invited to participate on this campaign in order to educate learners from a young age on the importance and the need to preserve the KNP habitat as well as the environment where they live.

Earlier before the event, learners and the park’s stakeholders embarked on a cleaning tour around the communities, picking up litter.

The Keep Kruger Clean Campaign (KKCC) was launched in 2006, with its main objectives as that to; create awareness in and outside the park about the dangers posed to the environment and animals by littering.

“Littering is the most unpleasant feature of our modern way of life. It is ugly, it is dangerous for both human and wild animals and it must be eradicated from our planet, not just in the Kruger National Park.

I must say that since we launched this campaign we have seen some improvements, however, we still need to work harder and strive for a litter free environment so that our guests, animals and staff can enjoy a safe habitat”, concluded Pienaar.